Cannibal's death penalty upheld

NO REGRETS A high court upheld the death penalty for two convicted murderers who raped, chopped up and partially ate a woman, but who have not expressed remorse

By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER

The Taiwan High Court's Taichung branch yesterday upheld the Taichung District Court's death sentence for cannibal Chen Chin-huo (陳金火) and his shop assistant Kwang Teh-chiang (廣德強). The two convicted killers have still not completely confessed to the murder of a 28-year-old insurance agent.

Differing from the district court's sentence, the high court yesterday added that although Kwang is facing the death penalty, he must go through a rehabilitation program.

"These two men never expressed regret for what they have done and never directly told investigators about the details of the case," said Chen Chi-kang (陳紀綱), spokesman for the high court's Taichung branch. "As a result, the judges believe that it is necessary to put them away for good."

Chen and Kwang are allowed to appeal, although both have said that they will not.

In the meantime, prosecutors said that they will appeal on the victim's behalf for the maximum possible sentence because "the death penalty is not good enough for these two sick men."

Both men have already been convicted on 10 counts, each of which carries a death sentence.

Both of the defendants continue to deny that they killed the victim.

Chen Chin-huo has only admitted that he helped Kwang chop up the body, while Kwang has only admitted that he raped the victim before she died.

On April 21 last year, a substantial part of Shih's body was discovered in the water tank of Chen Chin-huo's townhouse in Taichung County, where he also ran his motorcycle shop.

After Shih died, Kwang sold Shih's laptop and cellular phone to a shop owned by Chao Yin-chang (趙寅昌) in Taichung. With Chao's help, the police identified Chen Chin-huo and Kwang within a short time.

In an unrelated but eerily similar crime, Chao was also murdered and chopped up by his girlfriend last year, and pieces of his body were discovered in the Tadu Mountain area in Taichung County.

His girlfriend told the police that she decided to kill Chao because Chao lied to her about the fact that he was married.

Also, she said that Chao beat her all the time, called her a whore and asked her to have an abortion three years ago.